There has to be some cost of admission to having the "best" gear, or everyone will upgrade all the stuff they have to be the new "best".

I would rather it be glimmer than some new currency.

My main desire is keeping appearance apart from functionality.

I agree with you that your proposed changes would be more fun.

I expect that many at bungie would agree.

I guess I'm saying that the way the game works, the way it gets and keeps people hooked and playing, is very intentional. I think they definitely do want to keep it fun, but also keep the game populated. Because, let's be honest, if you weren't playing with a friendly group, it's very likely that you would play much less past the first couple of months. So keeping people engaged is a big part of helping people to "have fun". Because that's the funnest part right -- the experiences you have in-game with friends.

But keeping people in-game often enough to have those experiences is a difficult task. So they give enough reason to keep people playing, even if those systems are less fun than other systems would be.

I expect that as things go it will definitely get better, more enjoyable.

I also expect that the RNG and time gates will not go away. That's part of the design.

You make it sound like Xur shouldn't be a timegate to keep you playing, just like the rest of the RNG.

Good luck with that. :D

It shouldn't. Time gates suck. Bungie needs to let go of this notion that they have to make players play for a long time. If they DO, then they should offer a lot of content and challenges to undertake. Real ones. Not MMO bullshit.

You could semi-time-gate it by requiring materials that only Xûr sells, like the Exotic Shard. Sure, people could just stockpile, but that's true of any currency. At least this way, you always have access to the upgrade path if you have the required elements.